1. Technical Field
This invention relates to agricultural harvesters and more particularly to a mechanism for optionally returning tailings to the threshing section or to the cleaning section of the harvester.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
The tailings return arrangement in French patent No. 1,308,596 issued Oct. 1, 1962 to Cima Compagnie Internationale Des Machines Agricoles McCormick permits the operator to optionally return the tailings to an impeller positioned behind the threshing cylinder or to the cleaning section. A third option available to the operator is to use a screen in the bottom of the tailings elevator to permit the clean grain in the tailings to drop to the cleaning section while the remaining tailings material is returned to the impeller behind the threshing cylinder. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,944 issued Dec. 18, 1979, the tailings are returned by a tailings elevator to a distribution auger and are discharged to a pair of accelerator rolls which accelerate the tailings with other threshed material to the cleaning section of the combine. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,577 issued Dec. 9, 1969 to R. A. DePauw et al, the tailings are returned to a threshing cylinder of an axial flow combine. The tailings elevator dumps the tailings into a transverse auger conveyor, the last portion of which is perforated to permit clean grain to fall into the cleaning section without passing through the threshing section. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,125 issued June 13, 1972 to E. W. Rowland-Hill and H. G. McCarty, the tailings are returned to a pair of axial flow threshing rotors by an auger conveyor. A sliding door is provided at the tailings discharge to one of the rotors to regulate the distribution of tailings to the two rotors. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,433,162 issued Dec. 23, 1947 to C. J. Scranton et al, the tailings are returned by elevator and auger to the threshing section of the combine. A partially perforated cylindrical segment, placed in surrounding relation to a section of the cylindrical auger housing having an opening in its lower half, may be rotated to a first position in which the perforations are at the opening to permit clean grain to fall to the cleaning section and may be rotated to a second position in which a solid cylindrical portion is placed in confronting relation to the opening, thereby causing all tailings to be returned to the threshing section.